FIFA 16 is certainly better than last year’s edition

It's another year, it's another FIFA game, and it's another occasion where I've felt I've played a few matches on a good game and spoken to a person who is honestly trying to make something that people will enjoy.

But it is just another FIFA game. And the fact part of the presentation was about Gareth Bale's shoulders shows you: they're running out of big changes to make. And I'm running out of reasons to be excited about iterative changes and slight refinements.

Whilst EA Sports has presented us with all manner of buzzwords to confuse and confound, FIFA 16 is certainly better than last year’s edition. The Impact engine has been swapped for the new Ignite engine, with the aim of achieving atmospheric and realistic matches. The fans in the stands actually look human for once, although they still behave like an army of angry apes. Due to the new Emotional Intelligence feature players and fans can go through a variety of emotions over the course of a match, changing the mood of a game. And whilst we’re still stuck with the same old duo of Martin Tyler and Alan Smith for commentators, they now pick up on fan chants and the atmosphere of matches. All of these minor improvements help to keep FIFA 16 fresh.

Opponents and Teammates in FIFA 16 now make decisions just like real athletes. New to FIFA 16, players now have short, medium, and long term objectives that they decide upon as a team and execute using Team Tactics. If a team is up by a goal, they might park the bus, or if they are down a goal, they might try to get it in the mixer to be more direct in attack and secure a last gasp winner. This, along with other Team Tactics and mentality choices, creates emergent and realistic gameplay moments that become part of every game.

This all rather sours what is otherwise a fairly decent version of the game. FIFA 16 is the first PC version to make use of the Ignite Engine, though I’d be hard pushed to identify more changes between FIFA 14 and 16 than, say, 11 and 12. New engine or not, EA Sports are at the iterative stage of development where annual alterations to the game are more likely to be cosmetic than dramatic.